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Literary notes about Embody (AI summary)

In literature, "embody" functions as a powerful verb that transforms abstract ideas, emotions, or cultural ideals into tangible forms. Writers use it to illustrate how a character, object, event, or even an entire work can represent something larger than itself. For instance, spiritual and philosophical ideals are often depicted through concrete manifestations, as when religious concepts are made real through art or narrative [1][2]. At other times, the word illustrates the way historical figures or social phenomena personify the collective spirit and enduring qualities of a community [3][4]. This dual capacity to denote both literal and metaphorical representation enables authors to bridge the gap between the ethereal and the observable, inviting readers to perceive deeper interconnections between form and meaning [5][6].
  1. Through these, then, they attempted to embody such religious ideas as they felt.
    — from Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism by Thomas Inman and M.R.C.S.E. John Newton
  2. 24-5 In contradistinction to Western philosophies, all six Hindu systems embody not only theoretical but practical teachings.
    — from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
  3. What does it mean to say that historical personages "embody in themselves the emotions and the desires of the masses"?
    — from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park
  4. Others have the same love in such excess, that, not content with admiring, they seek to embody it in new forms.
    — from Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson
  5. Embody all presences outlaw'd or suffering, See myself in prison shaped like another man, And feel the dull unintermitted pain.
    — from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
  6. A work of art should invariably embody some lofty idea.
    — from The Sea-Gull by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

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